Global report on human settlements

The present report has been prepared to document global human settlements conditions and trends and to assist member governments in improving their settlement policies, plans, and programmes. It is also dedicated to those who in spite of limited means, and facing financial and physical odds-are at this moment building or improving their own habitat; to those whose wisdom and inspiration prompted the world community to embrace the concept of human settlements; and to the planners and builders who believe that the world can become a better place to live in..

Little more than ten years ago, the member states of the United Nations held a Conference named Habitat: United Nations Conference on Human Settlements. The Conference resulted in the adoption of a set of recommendations for national and international action and in the establishment of the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (Habitat).

Many events have occurred since the Conference. Some observers will argue, no doubt very convincingly, that the world has not become a better place. Others will maintain, no doubt with much reason, that our global community, well into the Third United Nations Development Decade, is confronted with problems of a magnitude and a complexity never faced before. A good number among the students and practitioners of human settlements development warn us about the formidable and growing obstacles which lie between us and our disturbingly evasive 'moving target': a satisfying living and working environment for the present and future members of the world's community. This report attempts to document these realities responsibly and objectively. Yet the economic crises experienced and somehow survived during the past decade have also taught us to give more credit to the inner strengths of our fellow human beings, and to the ability of men, women, and children to build a better world for themselves.

So, in the midst of a yet unsolved world recession, of a growing indebtedness of the developing world, of a persistent retrenchment of the more affluent from the duty and commitment to aid weaker nations and communities, this report wishes to convey a sense of hope in the future, and an exhortation to join in a truly worth while and engaging challenge: that of building as we move into the twenty-first century a world where everyone, man, woman, and child, can live in a home they are not ashamed of; where everyone can enjoy a minimum of space, privacy, security, and protection; where all have access to water and sanitation good enough not to impair one's health, or that of one's children; where the entire community can exercise a right to enjoy health, cultural, and educational facilities; where everyone can share a sense of pride in living in settlements, be they small villages or large cities, planned and developed through common efforts and for the common good.